美国国家公共电台 NPR--A sigh of relief this morning: a railway strike has been averted

A sigh of relief this morning: a railway strike has been averted²

Transcript³

President Joe Biden said Thursday a tentative railway labor⁴ agreement has been reached, averting⁵ a potentially devastating⁶ strike before the pivotal midterm elections.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

A sigh of relief this morning - the White House has announced a tentative labor deal that could avoid a rail worker strike that would have threatened the nation's economy. The deal was announced early this morning. Amtrak says it is now working to restore trains and routes that the company suspended yesterday in anticipation⁷ of a strike. NPR's David Schaper has been following all of this and joins us now. Good morning, David.

DAVID SCHAPER, BYLINE⁸: Good morning, Rachel.

MARTIN: So this is good news. Can you tell us about this tentative deal?

SCHAPER: Yeah. I mean, the Labor Department said in a statement that it took 20 consecutive⁹ hours of negotiations¹⁰ for the rail companies and union negotiators to reach this tentative agreement. And they say it balances the needs of workers, businesses and our nation's economy, calling it a hard-fought, mutually beneficial deal. You know, I should point out that 20 hours just in the last 24 hours is only the tip of the iceberg¹¹. I mean, this is a deal that they've been working on for years, and it just has come to a head in the last, you know, 30 days or so when there was a federal cooling-off period. President Biden, you know, stepped in to help to try to encourage these negotiations to move forward and reach a deal. He calls this agreement an important win for our economy and the American people that will keep our critical rail system working and avoid a disruption for our economy.

MARTIN: What was particularly difficult about these negotiations?

SCHAPER: A lot of these things do come down to pay in some instances. The American Association of Railroads praised the terms of the deal without revealing too many details. It does say that the new contracts provide rail employees a 24% wage increase over five years. There's an immediate¹² payout of about an average of $11,000 per worker upon ratification¹³. But that really wasn't the big sticking point in these last couple of weeks for the unions that represent engineers, conductors and other workers in particular. They were really seeking a better work-life balance. They work long hours and away from home several days at a time. They also complain about many days they spend on call and a system that when they need to take days off when they're on call that they say penalizes¹⁴ workers who need to take the days off for things like doctor's appointments or family emergencies and even funerals. It's still not clear how those more contentious¹⁵ issues were ultimately resolved.

MARTIN: So even just the threat of a possible strike was so frightening because the consequences would be so devastating that there were contingency¹⁶ plans that have already been put in place, right? Like, Amtrak suspended some passenger train routes.

SCHAPER: Yeah. You know, railroads, manufacturers, shippers, they've been preparing for a possible strike and stopped shipments of cars and some other valuable goods, even dangerous chemicals so those trains hauling those goods and materials would not end up stranded¹⁷ and vulnerable to maybe being tampered¹⁸ with or even stolen. Amtrak is in a different situation. They may need a few days to get their longer route service back on. You have to remember, outside of the Northeast Corridor, where Amtrak owns much of its track - across the rest of the country, Amtrak runs its trains almost entirely¹⁹ on track owned, operated and maintained by the freight railroads. So if there had been a freight railroad strike, Amtrak trains outside of the Northeast Corridor could not really operate. So they've been canceling those long-distance trains to ensure that every train reached its final destination before a possible service disruption because of a strike, which would have occurred after midnight tonight.

MARTIN: We should just underscore that at this moment, it's a tentative agreement to avert¹ a strike, which, David, just would have been devastating to the economy, right?

SCHAPER: Yeah, and it still could be. There are more than 12 different unions that actually have to sign off on their own individual contracts. But, yeah, so much of the food, clothing, materials, products that we buy, that we rely upon, that we use every day, comes to us at least part of the way on rail, from cars and car parts to the oil and gas we use to fuel our vehicles. There's also lumber²⁰, coal, grain, fertilizers, live stock feed. The Association of American Railroads said a strike would devastate²¹ the economy, costing the country up to $2 billion dollars a day.

MARTIN: OK. We so appreciate your reporting on this. NPR's David Schaper, thank you.

SCHAPER: My pleasure.

1 avert   

v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等)

参考例句：

• He managed to avert suspicion.他设法避嫌。
• I would do what I could to avert it.我会尽力去避免发生这种情况。

2 averted   

防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移

参考例句：

• A disaster was narrowly averted. 及时防止了一场灾难。
• Thanks to her skilful handling of the affair, the problem was averted. 多亏她对事情处理得巧妙，才避免了麻烦。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

5 averting   

防止，避免( avert的现在分词 )； 转移

参考例句：

• The margin of time for averting crisis was melting away. 可以用来消弥这一危机的些许时光正在逝去。
• These results underscore the value of rescue medications in averting psychotic relapse. 这些结果显示了救护性治疗对避免精神病复发的价值。

6 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

7 anticipation   

n.预期，预料，期望

参考例句：

• We waited at the station in anticipation of her arrival.我们在车站等着，期待她的到来。
• The animals grew restless as if in anticipation of an earthquake.各种动物都变得焦躁不安，像是感到了地震即将发生。

8 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

9 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

10 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

11 iceberg   

n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人

参考例句：

• The ship hit an iceberg and went under.船撞上一座冰山而沉没了。
• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。

12 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

13 ratification   

n.批准，认可

参考例句：

• The treaty is awaiting ratification.条约正等待批准。
• The treaty is subject to ratification.此条约经批准后才能生效。

14 penalizes   

对…予以惩罚( penalize的第三人称单数 )； 使处于不利地位

参考例句：

• The new law penalizes the poorest members of society. 新法规对社会中最贫困者不利。

15 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

16 contingency   

n.意外事件，可能性

参考例句：

• We should be prepared for any contingency.我们应该对任何应急情况有所准备。
• A fire in our warehouse was a contingency that we had not expected.库房的一场大火是我们始料未及的。

17 stranded   

a.搁浅的，进退两难的

参考例句：

• He was stranded in a strange city without money. 他流落在一个陌生的城市里， 身无分文，一筹莫展。
• I was stranded in the strange town without money or friends. 我困在那陌生的城市，既没有钱，又没有朋友。

18 tampered   

v.窜改( tamper的过去式 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄

参考例句：

• The records of the meeting had been tampered with. 会议记录已被人擅自改动。 来自辞典例句
• The old man's will has been tampered with. 老人的遗嘱已被窜改。 来自辞典例句

19 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

20 lumber   

n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动

参考例句：

• The truck was sent to carry lumber.卡车被派出去运木材。
• They slapped together a cabin out of old lumber.他们利用旧木料草草地盖起了一间小屋。

21 devastate   

v.使荒芜，破坏，压倒

参考例句：

• A few days before,a fire had devastated large parts of Windsor Castle.几天前，温莎城堡的大部分被一场大火烧毁。
• Earthquakes can also cause tsunamis,which devastate coastal regions.地震还引发海啸，它直接破坏海岸地区。